A Northeast Ohio artist is part of a prestigious exhibition that opened this week in London. A painting by Frank Oriti was chosen from hundreds of entrants to this year's National Portrait Gallery show. The piece shows a profile of a Cleveland-area man who is covered with tattoos.
"I had seen him around town," says Oriti, "and I messaged him and I said I'd love to paint your portrait."
That painting now hangs in a London gallery as part of an annual exhibition of the world’s finest portraits. Frank Oriti is one of only nine American artists chosen to be in this year's exhibition. He titled his piece, "Clarity" --- that's one of the words that is tattooed on the side of his subject's shaved head. He says it's part of a series of blue-collar people he's painted over the past five years.
"I've focused my work on the look and the attitude and the toughness of what it takes to thrive and survive in a place like Cleveland."
Visitors to the National Gallery will get a chance to have this insider's view of Cleveland through mid-September.
